Does it ever touch on the ‘morality’ of marrying your own stepdaughter?
Just wondering?
You do know he and Farrow never married, right?
She was never his stepdaughter.
He was never married to Mia Farrow so he never married his stepdaughter.
Yes, it sort of does, and Allen doesn’t leave himself off the hook.
Warning: bit of a SPOILER here.
Hal, the fake rich husband, has a number of affairs. When those are revealed, he tells Jasmine he wants a divorce because he’s really “in love” with a 17-year-old French au pair girl. Jasmine knows he’s been lying about everything. The revelation of this fantasy sends her over the edge. It’s the first time, but not the last, that she says “I’ve got to get out of here.” But what could be a cleansing turn toward truth and God for Jasmine, in a word, repentance, is a turn toward delusional remorse.
Allen’s artistic sense is better than his personal moral sense. This au pair fantasy is the bubble of wealth, success, and respectability that breaks everything — just like the Soon-Yi scandal justifiably popped Allen’s world, although not Allen’s self-constructed narrative about the scandal.
“What’s the scandal?” Allen said about marrying his stepdaughter. Gee, Woody, read the Post article (http://nypost.com/2012/01/08/the-quiet-victory-of-mia-the-kids-woody-left-behind/). For 20 years, Allen has been living inside a self-constructed moral bubble about Soon Yi. At least his artistic conscience is screaming about it, even if his moral conscience continues whistling in the dark.
(The alienation of Allen’s/Jasmine’s son is also referenced in the movie. Woody’s mind will dig up ANYTHING to serve his art, which is either a moral failing or a path back to goodness and God, who knows?)
Another caution: This is a psychologically and morally troubling movie. While I think it’s a great one, the conclusion is disturbing and nihilistic — a Christian context of confession and repentance versus remorse and despair helps a lot in “enjoying” this movie. Like I said, it’s moral poetry, not a Hollywood production.